


Maybe We’re Meant To Be Alone

by miserableroses



Series: Maybe We’re Meant To be Alone [1]
Category: IT (1990), IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst with a Happy Ending, Coming Out, Coming of Age, F/M, Gay, Gay Eddie Kaspbrak, LGBT, Lovers, M/M, Questioning, Reddie, Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak, Romance, Slow Burn, Summer, Taylor Swift - Freeform, best friends to lovers?, college reddie towards the end, no pennywise, platonic edverly, reddie doesn’t happen for a while
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-11
Updated: 2020-04-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:53:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23561863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miserableroses/pseuds/miserableroses
Summary: “Why haven’t you told him?” It’s a question Eddie’s been dancing around for four years now. A question he doesn’t even know the answers to.Picking at his fingernails, he shrugs. “Honestly?” Says Eddie, his tone coming out in a low whisper. “I don’t think i’m ever going to tell him, Bev.” which was true. He has all the words to say, but something inside of him is tugging those words down, weighing each one. they’re bricks tied around each word, every letter a heavier weight that tugs him down.(Or where Eddie doesn’t tell Richie)
Relationships: Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh, Eddie Kaspbrak & Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Mike Hanlon/Stanley Uris, Reddie - Relationship
Series: Maybe We’re Meant To be Alone [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1695874
Kudos: 6





	Maybe We’re Meant To Be Alone

**Author's Note:**

> HI this a new series i’m posting Based on the song “Maybe We’re Meant To be Alone.” By Bad suns. 
> 
> Also some of you might hate me for the ending I have planned. 
> 
> Enjoy this fic and PLEASE LEAVE SOME LOVE AND SUPPORT!

_“And then I met you, I wanted to love you so bad_   
_But I don't know if I'll let myself_   
_You came here for somebody else_   
_And now I'm trying hard to heal_   
_Sometimes I fantasize about faking my own death_   
_Just to see how it would make you feel”_

_”Maybe We’re Meant To Be Alone” By Bad Suns_

_It’s a high jump._ His muscles tense, each one of them pulling together, the hard rocks between his toes make him step back, backing away. 

Swimming in the quarry every last day of summer and the start after school is finished has become almost muscle memory to the seven losers. No matter what the others were doing this was something they always did. 

Today was the first day of summer, like always the first day was one of the hottest. Sweat clings to all seven of the loser's foreheads, droplets gliding down their faces. Luckily enough, Eddie had been thoughtful for his friends and packed them all several bottles of what he could only presume was piss warm water from the walk here. _It would have to do, at least they won’t get heat stroke._

Peeking his head to look at Richie, Eddie frowns. The jackass refusing to wear the sunblock Eddie had forced the others to lather on, while lecturing them about the risks of skin cancer or some bullshit he heard from his mother. It’s almost always the same. Richie refuses to do what Eddie asks him, and Eddie lectures him until he gets annoyed and caves. It’s a routine the pair haven’t been able to break out of since middle school. 

The first to jump was always Beverly, shouting out an insult at the six others every time they would come here. She never was afraid. She would always brace herself for the impact, laughing wildly when she comes up for air, and yelling for the others to join her. 

Standing beside Richie there was a stark contrast between the two. Richie was a six foot giant, always towering over Eddie. Eddie wasn’t short, but next to Richie it came apparent to him he was in fact only able to reach just below his chest. He knows this because whenever they hug, Eddie’s head would nestle right under his chin, just barely reaching his shoulder. Richie on the other hand was a fucking giant, who always loves to use his height advantage against Eddie—as much as Eddie scolds him for doing so. 

Richie tears off his shirt, throwing it in Eddie’s direction. Gulping, Eddie stares away, looking down at the discarded shirt. His fingers twitch to move it from the gravel, and place it with this own stuff. He hates how Richie can be so careless with his belongings, allowing the summer’s sun to shine against his skin. The skin he always refused to wear sunblock on. The skin that would be beet red surely enough by tomorrow morning. Eddie can just hear Richie’s whining voice in his head; _Eds, it hurts so bad. Please help make it stop._ This was a part of their summer routine. Richie would get the worst sunburns, calling up Eddie who knows how to make sunburns at least a little bit bearable. He knows all of this _medical shit_ as Richie would call it because of his mother and the years he spent up until middle school listening to her lecture him about everything. Freshman year was when he stopped listening. But alias this _useless_ information pays off when being friends with the world’s dumbest seventeen year-old. 

“Rich, You’re gonna get a sunburn,” Says Eddie, pulling at Richie’s hand before he has the chance to do a cannibal into the quarry. “C’mere.” he rolls his eyes, forcing Richie to sit down on one of the rocks. Richie doesn’t put up a fight, willingly following what he told him to do, mostly because he knows he doesn’t want to deal with a sunburn tomorrow and the scolding he would receive from Eddie. _Well, maybe if you listened to me for a change you wouldn’t have a sunburn, Rich._

“You just want an excuse to rub against my sexy abs!” Richie smugly says, a wide smirk on his lips. Eddie hides his red cheeks, looking through his bag for the sunblock he knows he has in here. Richie’s comment surely didn’t affect him, it was probably all the sun he’s been getting. 

When he finds it he throws the bottle at Richie. “As if. You don’t even have abs, idiot.” Says Eddie, turning his head when Richie uncaps the bottle. He licks his lips, crossing his arms. The fabric of his tee-shirt clings desperately to his body, wet with his sweat. 

“aren’t you gonna undress for me?” Richie wiggles his eyebrows suggestively, throwing the bottle back to Eddie.

Eddie picks up the bottle. “In your dreams, Tozier.” 

If Eddie would’ve stayed longer standing there he would’ve heard the soft mumble of a confession from Richie. He would’ve seen the red tint of his cheeks that match Eddie’s. But he doesn’t stay long, he’s quick to tear off his shirt, getting a running start and jumping in. When he lands with a big _splash,_ he comes up heaving for a breath. Coughing he tries to not be bothered by the taste of the water that got into his mouth. Normally Eddie would’ve freaked out about this, but he’s learned over the years it’s best not to freak out and spiral himself into a panic attack, especially when he’s in a large body of water. 

Before he has the chance to move he hears Richie yell something from the rocks above then he’s jumping down. It seems to take him a couple seconds to hit the water, the others cheer him on and when he comes up, not far from where Eddie was, he Heaves for a breath, pushing back his mane of chocolate curls. Eddie knows the second his hair is semi-dry it’s going to be a tangled mess of curls. He also knows Richie will ask Eddie politely as he could ever be, with his head resting in his lap as they ride back into town; _Untangle it for me, Eds, I’m too tired._ Like always Eddie would do it, the pounding of his chest filling up the sound in the old truck of Mike’s. He doesn’t quite know why it’s been happening or what it means. _Maybe it’s nothing._

Looking at Eddie, a grin spreads across his lips as he splashes him with water. This little tiff turns into a full water fight, the others joining in. Laughter fills the air, coating their skin in a sickeningly sweet glittery embrace. It fills Eddie’s chest up with more _love_ than he’s ever felt in his life. The only times he’s ever accompanied by this welcoming feeling of belonging and feeling loved was with his friends. They’re his home. 

  
  
  


“You know since it is summer, we should have more sleepovers.” It’s Ben who says this, laying beside Beverly as they bask in the sun. The towels they brought were laid not far from each other. 

Bill nods affirmatively, “Y-yeah we really s-should,” Bill stutters out, lowering his sunglasses to look at the others. “M-my house is always free.” Which was true, when they were younger they always spent their time at Bill's, his parents more than thrilled their son finally found a group of friends that didn’t make fun of his stutter back then when it was at its worst. Now Bill’s stutter was almost in check, he still struggled with certain things but he certainly was improving. 

Frowning, Eddie picks up a rock twirling it in his fingers. His mother definitely wouldn’t allow him to spend more time with his friends. She sure as hell wouldn’t allow him to spend the night at their houses that’s for sure. As much as she pretended to like Eddie’s friends, he knows better than to believe the fake cheerfulness in her voice when Eddie mentions them. His mother despised his friends. More specifically Richie and Beverly. 

Noticing the sudden change, Richie nudges at Eddie. They both were sitting together, thighs almost touching. Eddie tries to not mind this, tries to not blush or move himself closer. _This is okay._ It’s more than okay. 

He doesn’t have to ask, he knows what’s wrong without the words being said. Sharing the frown, Richie leans himself closer, nudging his bare bony shoulder against Eddie's. It’s enough to make a minuscule of a smile appear on his lips. It’s barely anything, but to Richie those ghosts of lips curving upwards means everything to him. 

“If it makes you feel any better, Eds, I’ll sneak you out.” Richie only says this for Eddie to hear, voice barely projecting loud enough to be heard. But he hears him, and those words make that minuscule smile on Eddie’s lips widen, sprawling out across his cheeks and kissing every corner of his mouth. He always knows how to make him feel better. 

It’s wishful thinking of course, but Richie has snuck Eddie out in the past. Most of their sleepovers that he attended was thanks to Richie and his monkey-like climbing skills. No matter how much Eddie begged him not to, he still ended up outside his window standing on his roof like the crazy person he was. 

Shaking his head, “No. It’s fine.” Says Eddie, even though he knows for a fact Richie will not listen. He never does listen. 

Without warning, Richie rests his head onto the lap of Eddie’s peering up at him with wide innocent eyes. 

“Untangle my hair, Eds?” Richie questions, gruffly. His words shouldn’t have this much affect on Eddie considering he’s said them thousands of times to him. They shouldn’t have made him gulp down everything crawling up inside him. The hammering of his chest against his rib cage shouldn’t be growing louder, the blood rushing straight to his cheeks and heating up his entire body. His best friend shouldn’t have this affect on him. 

It takes him a moment to actually register what he said, when he does he coughs, threading his fingers through the brown curls of Richie’s. He tries to keep a neutral look on his face, and will away the tint of red slapping against his cheeks. 

The way he leans into Eddie’s simple tugs and hums softly to himself surely wasn’t the reason his chest was competing in a race with his thoughts. Eddie’s not quite sure which one was going to win this race. He doesn’t want either of them to be frank about it. 

Eddie can see Richie’s eyes fluttering closed, a content smile never leaving his lips as he tugs on the hair trying to detanlge it. While doing this Eddie finds himself tangled in a web, his hammering heart the culprit in this. It shoots webs, wrapping themselves around Eddie. He’s tangled in the web of Richie Tozier, and he’s doing his fucking best to claw himself out of it. It wasn’t a smart idea to allow himself to get wrapped up around him. 

Even when he knows all his hair is untangled, Eddie doesn’t pull away. He continues to thread his fingers through Richie’s hair, watching his friends. They didn’t seem to notice anything, considering this was normal. This was Richie and Eddie nothing about the pair were normal their friends have come to realize. 

  
  


The one thing his mother dislikes most about his group of friends was their carelessness. He recalls a conversation with his mother before. She would warn him about the dangers of friendship, scolding him for choosing the losers club (their self proclaimed name they had taken ownership over) as his friends. She never cared for how reckless they were, taking her son to places she had forbidden him from going. But Eddie likes that taste of the fresh and unrelenting high he gets from disregarding his mother’s rules. As Richie Tozier once said; _Sometimes to live a little you have to break the rules. Now Eddie Spaghetti, you with me?_ Those are the few examples of why his mother would rather have her son make new friends than hang around Richie. She never appreciated the way he tore at the seams of her dear son, opening up those dangerous gates of possibility. she never likes the way she practically could hear the smile cracking through his face when he talked about Richie. His mother would rather prefer anything over his selection of friends. 

When the old truck of Mike’s splutters to a stop, the sound of the engine flicking off makes Eddie jump up. With his free hand that wasn’t trying to pry Mike’s rusty door open, he waves a goodbye to his friends. Because his friends know his mother they always parked a block from his house, they know better than to park any closer his mother would sit and wait for him and he wasn’t ready to listen to her lecture him about the dangers of riding in Mike’s beat up truck. She would surely ban him from leaving the house for weeks while she takes him to doctors appointments to test for everything above the sun. 

“ _Wait.”_ It’s Richie who stops Eddie before he’s out of the truck, he lays a hand on his the corners of his stupid pink lips spreading into a grin. “Lemme walk you the rest of the way, Eds.” His grin turns toothy at Eddie’s frown. It wasn’t because he didn’t want Richie to walk him home. _No._ It was that stupid nickname he always insisted on calling Eddie. If it wasn’t that it was a different one, Richie has an abundance of nicknames for all his friends but Eddie had the most. 

“Don’t call me that!” He groans, finally getting the door to open. “And Mike fix the door!” He exasperates, leaving the door open so Richie could follow behind him. He doesn’t get the hint. Or he’s waiting for Eddie to tell him to come along. _Or_ he’s probably being the exuberant full of energy dick, who always tries to get a rise out of Eddie. “Are you coming, stupid?” He puts a foot in front of the other, tapping a hand against his hip. He’s trying his hardest to not smile, his lips quivering. But it’s Richie, no matter his antics he always was creeping around knocking on each and every nerve in Eddie’s body. The way Richie can so easily make a terrible thing better was starting to make a worrying-chill crawl up Eddie’s throat, wrapping itself around him in what he could only presume was a chokehold, pinning him down. _That doesn’t mean anything. Surely it doesn’t._

With as little grace as possible Richie’s tall frame falls out of the truck, it’s a sight for sore eyes watching Richie struggle to get out of the small front cab of the truck. Finally when he’s not hovering over Stan, he jumps out of the truck. 

“Don’t you dare walk away Spaghetti! I’m trying to be gentlemen and walk you home!” Says Richie, slinging an arm around Eddie’s shoulder. The tee-shirt Richie was wearing was still damp, sloshing against Eddie’s own shoulder. “Bye _Loo-sas_!” Richie salutes them, in a terrible accent that sounded more so of himself than what he was going for. 

He grimaces at the fabrics rubbing together, pushing Richie as far away from him as he possibly could be. “Rich, get off me. You’re getting me all wet.” The second the last sentence leaves his lips he knows he started something he couldn’t get away from. 

Richie smirks, sending one last goodbye wave to Mike’s truck that was making its way into Bill’s neighborhood. “Do I make you wet?” He grins skipping along to catch up to Eddie. He should be used to Richie’s crudeness, but every once in a while when he’s really not paying too much attention to the details those words would catch him, shaking up the entire universe of _Richie and Eddie._ His cheeks would become almost as red as the shorts he used to wear in middle school, and his stupid fucking heart would hammer loudly against his rib cage, his stomach was a mess of knots tying together tightly. _That’s nothing though. Right?_

Just like those times, Eddie’s cheeks flush a warm vibrant pink, his lips curl into a frown sucking in a breath to get his body to calm down. 

“Shut up, Trashmouth,” He says, in a quick breath. He hides the hesitation creeping its way into between them, by fiddling with his backpack, he’s looking for his inhaler. When his fingers grasp around the cylindrical object he pulls it out, slotting it between his lips. “You coming up after I finish getting lectured by my mom?” He places the inhaler back into his bag, slinging it over his shoulder. 

“Do you want me to?” a toothy grin accompanied his features, his arm instead of wrapping around Eddie’s shoulder was placed around his waist, the pair walking in-sync. To bystanders it probably looked strange for Richie’s six foot self to have Eddie’s five-seven at best self tucked around him. To Richie at least it was normal. Eddie was still deciding what was normal. “Maybe I could come inside with you. I bet Sonia missed her favorite best friend of yours.” Joked Richie, squeezing Eddie’s waist. 

It’s hard to think clearly, the smell of Richie’s cheap cologne(he obviously only bought at the dollar store to appease Beverly’s wishes), the way he presses into Eddie skin on skin contact makes a chilling of goosebumps arise onto the surface of Eddie’s entire body. He blames it on the coldness of the setting night. But there wasn’t even a single gust of chilling wind wrapping around them. Just Richie, too close, way too close to Eddie. 

Scoffing, Eddie cranes his neck to look up at Richie. “My mom definitely wouldn’t call you her favorite,” He says matter of factly. “Just come up like you always do. _But,_ be quiet.” Eddie warns. 

“I’m a stealthy ninja. It wounds me that you would think I couldn’t be quiet.” He gasps, his free hand resting over his chest. 

“idiot.” 

Richie, pinches Eddie’s waist, making him jump away, scolding Richie. “Call me an idiot again.” He challenges. The pair both stop walking. 

Curling his lips into a grin, Eddie moves his lips. _Idiot._ He mouthed the syllables. He’s never backed down from Richie, even if that meant he’d suffer the consequences. 

“Idiot.” His grin is almost as wide as his growing heart that was thumping as loud as ever in his chest. 

“You asked for it, Spaghetti!” Richie Loudly laughs. His fingers wiggle, gravitating towards the most ticklish spots of Eddie’s he’s come to know. 

Backing away, Eddie turns to at least try to outrun Richie. But the hands of Richie’s are wrapped around his middle tugging him towards him. 

Richie’s fingers poke into his hips, moving around until he finds the perfect spot. Eddie’s turning red, cheeks burning. It almost feels like he has a sunburn but that surely wasn’t the case. It was the six foot giant’s bony fingers poking and prodding at his waist and hips. 

“You’re turning purple, just laugh already.” Richie giggles, still tickling at Eddie’s hips. 

Eddie shakes his head. “N-no.” 

He’s not going to satisfy Richie by allowing himself to laugh. But if he doesn’t Richie will continue his attack. 

“If you won’t laugh I’m not stopping.” Richie chortles gleefully. They fall back into the grass, Richie hovering over Eddie. His fingers still were doing an assault to Eddie’s waist, trying to hear a laugh bubble from his stubborn lips. 

The grass pokes at Eddie’s back, while Richie’s fingers poke at his waist now. Finally a laugh that comes out unrelenting, as it moves from passing his lips it never stops. Even when Richie’s fingers halt he’s still laughing. And so is Richie. 

“There’s that beautiful laugh I like to hear.” It’s said in a joking manner. But Eddie can’t help but feel his heart speed up, his insides were goo at this point, melting away at Richie's sweet words. 

Moving a piece of hair on Eddie’s forehead, Richie stares down at him giggling softly to himself. Eddie watches every movement of his, taking in _this._ His cheeks flush darker, lips licking over his bottom one. They stare at each other for a couple more seconds, before Richie quickly stands up, brushing off the invisible dirt from his pants. 

“C’mon, let’s get the princess home.” Richie clears his throat, offering out a hand for Eddie. 

Eddie picks up his backpack, grabbing onto Richie’s outstretched hand. _Act like nothing happened._ Which it did. Nothing did happen. _Right?_


End file.
